Helensburgh didn’t play a tie with Newton Stewart — they were without almost their entire front row and so called the game off on the grounds of player safety.

The club were docked three points as a result but manager John Cashmore attended a meeting at Murrayfield on Monday, December 8 to plead the club’s case.

He said: “The rules say that if you can’t complete a fixture without reasonable cause you can be punished. To us concerns over player safety is a perfectly reasonable reason.

“The SRU are considering the case and we await the outcome.” On the field Burgh were supposed to line up against Garnock in the league on Saturday — however the pitch was deemed unplayable following poor weather in the area.

It leaves Helensburgh having played the least number of matches in the league — just seven compared with the majority of teams having played nine or 10.

Usually that would be a worry for a manager, however Casmore believes it could work in his team’s favour to play the ties later in the year.

He said: “It’s not a worry. This is our least favourite time of year. Our guys prefer a firm dry surface because of the style of rugby we play. So if these matches are played around February, March time that might help us. Potentially by then league could be close to settled in terms of the teams at the top — some teams might not have a lot to play for.

“To be honest I was delighted the game was off on Saturday, I think a lot of teams would relish playing us in those type of conditions.” The lack of games due to the Autumn Internationals and call-offs made the previous week’s win over Annan all the more important for Burgh.

Cashmore said: “It was absolutely crucial. I said to the boys before the match, this will define our season.

“To be fair to Annan they played better than the last time we faced them, but we missed three or four tries, it should’ve been a bigger win.”